"Today is the feast of the Holy Family—Mary,
Joseph, and Jesus. In the reading from St Paul’s letter to the Colossians, he gives
an exhortation on holiness. It is a joy to notice that the reading
re-translated in the inclusive language of our modern culture and MMOJ. Paul’s
exhortation for the morals of the home and household previously read, “Wives,
give way to your husbands as you should in the Lord.” The
inclusive translation says, “You who are in relationships, be
submissive to each other. Lovers, love each other. Avoid bitterness. And if you
are responsible for children, do not nag them, lest they lose heart.”

I have often wondered about being and
becoming holy, as you no doubt also have wondered. Surely it is a quality of
Jesus’ family, but it is also an expectation of each of us. God’s
love indeed clothes us in compassion, kindness, gentleness, patience,
forgiveness. The strength of that love can create holiness in each of us, but
we know with certainty that becoming and being holy is not automatic. Being
human includes sharing joy and also making mistakes and alienating others.

Ira Byock, an MD with 30 years of
hospice work, in his book, 4 things that matter most: a book about living,
prescribes 4 healing sentences for everyday life: Please forgive me. I forgive
you. Thank you. I love you. The simplicity is deceiving. The ideal is amazing.

I clearly remember a young hospice nurse
talking with a dying woman’s spouse. “Your
wife is sedated, and yet she is restless and moaning. Are you aware of any
unresolved issues that she could be worried about?” “Oh,
yes,” he said. “She and our pastor had a falling out 3
weeks ago. It has had a very negative impact on her.”
Together they agreed that a healing visit from the pastor could make a
difference for all of them.—Please forgive me. I forgive you.
Thank you. I love you.

There is no need to wait until we’re
dying. Using the 4 healing sentences throughout life could be our way of
supplementing God’s work of holiness in us."Dr. Imogene Rigdon, Homily Starter/Holy Family Sunday/Dec 28,2013)

Dr. Imogene and Micahel Rigdon, Married Priest Couple/Presiders

At Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community in Sarasota Florida, the “Clerical Team” consists of ordained and non ordained women and men including Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP, Katy Zatsick, ARcwp Priest and Married priests including Michael and imogene Rigdon and Lee and Carol Breyer as well as other church members. These leaders take turns at presiding and starting the Homilies. The Homilies are short as the homilist then turns to the congregation in interactive dialogue. This is all part of renewing the model of priesthood and liturgical celebration in churches where women priests share liturgical responsibilities. Below is a fine homily starter by Dr. Imogene Rigdon who presided with her husband Michael a Roman Catholic Priest at this evenings Mass of the Holy Family.

(WOMENSENEWS)--"In the nine months since the white smoke went up at the Vatican, many of the same nuns who were running afoul of their leadership in Rome are happy about the Vatican's election of Pope Francis, Time magazine's person of the year.

"I think the Pope is showing all of us that each of us has this same capacity for compassionate openness – this largesse of soul – that is so needed in our world," said Sister Mary Beth Hamm, social justice coordinator of Sisters of Saint Joseph of Chestnut Hill in Brookline, Mass.

Bridget Mary Meehan, a bishop at the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, says Pope Francis is "doing terrifically well" and that he is "moving on toward the justice of the oppressed."

But she also hopes he will move the Church toward female ordination. "It is all about equality and justice," Meehan said in a phone interview. "Ordained women in the Catholic Church is the issue because women are half, more than half, of the population in the world. The Pope needs to recognize that global and gender equality and justice are essential."

The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests is a group, based in Florida, of ordained women who live and minister in the United States and South America. They prepare and ordain qualified women to serve the people as priests.

Two years ago in April, the Vatican concluded an investigation of the Leadership Council of Women Religious, an organization that represents 80 percent of the nuns in the United States, and criticized their "radical feminist themes" and focus on social services at the expense of other issues, especially their silence on same-sex relationships and abortion, Women's eNews reported..Janice Sevre-Duszynska is a priest at the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. "Gays and lesbians have suffered enough," she said in a phone interview. "It was profound that he came out about the harshness of Catholicism."

Call for Female Priests

Sevre-Duszynska also hopes the Pope will call for the ordination of female priests. "We need a feminine image of God... 'it is required to open priesthood to both males and females, celibate or not celibate, gay, lesbian or heterosexual.'"

She added that she thinks the world is too capitalistic and needs to become more human-oriented.

"Too much money is going into weapons; meanwhile, the rights of the citizen are being taken away," Sevre-Duszynska said.."

Response to Article;

This excellent article by Darina Naidu for Wwe (Women’s E News) describes how activist nuns and women priests, such as Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan and Priest Janice Sevre-Dusynska of The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests support the Pope with his emphasis on simplicity and serving the poor and outcast while praying and hoping for the Ordination of women and the inclusion of those women priests already ordained. There are now over 160 validly ordained women world wide. We are humbled and pleased to be among them.

We in The Association of Women Priests thank you for your prayers and wishes for the world this holy Christmas-tide. We join you in these wonderful prayers.We also pray that you will look with open eyes at the way Jesus included women as equals to men in his ministry ,calling Mary of Magdala as an Apostle-and at the discipleship of his mother Mary. We hope this will open your heart to recognize your women priests who join you in your priority for the poor and outcast of this world. We especially join you in your prayer for love and reconciliation for all people. ARCWP

Pope’s Christmas Wish-Hope For a Better World

The Associated Press - By FRANCES D’EMILIO – Associated Press

In this picture provided by the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis delivers his “Urbi et Orbi” (to the City and to the World) message from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2013. Pope Francis on Christmas day is wishing for a better world, with peace for the land of Jesus’ birth, for Syria and Africa as well as for the dignity of migrants and refugees fleeing misery and conflict. Francis spoke from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica Wednesday to tens of thousands of tourists, pilgrims and Romans in the square below. He said he was joining in the song of Christmas angels with all those hoping “for a better world,” and with those who “care for others, humbly.” (AP Photo/L’Osservatore Romano, ho)

regorio Borgia)

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Pope Francis carries a statue of baby Jesus as he celebrates the Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

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Pope Francis walks with the pastoral staff at the end of the Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Clergymen walk and pray during Christmas mass at the Church of Nativity, traditionally believed by Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2013. Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, lead the midnight mass attended by many including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. (AP Photo/Musa Al-Shaer, Pool)

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Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, leads the midnight Christmas mass at the Church of Nativity, traditionally believed by Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Musa Al-Shaer, Pool)

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Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, bottom center, leads the midnight Christmas mass at the Church of Nativity, traditionally believed by Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Musa Al-Shaer, Pool)

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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, center, attends Christmas mass lead by Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal at the Church of Nativity, traditionally believed by Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Musa Al-Shaer, Pool)

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Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, center, leads midnight Christmas mass at the Church of Nativity, traditionally believed by Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Musa Al-Shaer, Pool)

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Francis also spoke of the lives of everyday people, especially those struggling for a better life.

Recalling the hundreds of migrants who have drowned this year while trying to reach European shores, including many close to the Italian island of Lampedusa, Francis prayed that refugees receive hope, consolation and assistance.

He added that “our thoughts turn to those children who are the most vulnerable victims of wars, but we think, too, of the elderly, of battered women” and others.

The 77-year-old pope kept to the simple style he has set for his papacy. Wearing a plain white cassock, Francis presented a sharp contrast in appearance to the pope who stood on the same balcony on Christmas exactly a year ago. Then Benedict XVI, who was soon to stun the world by retiring, read his Christmas speech while dressed in a crimson, ermine-trimmed cape. Benedict lives on the Vatican grounds, and Francis paid a holiday call on him earlier this week.

In another break with tradition, the Argentine-born Francis stuck to Italian for his Christmas greetings, forsaking a custom of wishing happy holidays in dozens of languages to the crowd below the balcony.

In the Mideast, pilgrims celebrated Christmas in the ancient Bethlehem church where tradition holds Jesus was born, as candles illuminated the sacred site and the joyous sound of prayer filled its overflowing halls.

This year’s turnout was the largest in years in Bethlehem, and the celebrations have been marked by careful optimism amid ongoing Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Leaders expressed hope the coming year would finally bring the Palestinians an independent state of their own.

The top Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land, Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal, led a prayer for some 1,000 worshippers. “The whole world now is looking at Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus,” Twal said in his annual address, adding that the message of Jesus was one of “love and reconciliation.”

As Mother Teresa said "It is Christmas every time you let God love others through you. "May God love others through you today and everyday!Even though, our Christmas cards depict a peaceful environment, let's be real, it was a tough time for Mary and Joseph. First:the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem on the back of a donkey was no joy ride for Mary, nine months pregnant. Can you imagine the stress of looking for a place to give birth? Let us remember the families especially single mothers who give birth to children in poverty without adequate food, shelter or health care. Second: There was no hospitality inn available, and a stable, well, let's say it wouldn't be a top choice for most people. Think Barn aroma! Yet in our world today millions of people live on trash dumps among squalor without water, electricity or sanitation. Third: the first witnesses to the birth of Jesus were shepherds.Shepherds were among the lowest and least of their society. So, what does this say about God's preferential option for the least among us? Are they the ones to show us the way to let God love through us? Who are our "shepherds" today? Christmas is the time of year we see love incarnate in so many ways. We become more aware of God's loving presence everywhere and in everyone. Christ is born again and again in our world through our compassion and generous service to others. Let us allow God to continue to love the least and lowest in our world through us.A holy, happy and loving Christmas!Bridget Mary Meehan, arcwp, www.arcwp.org

We are grateful to present Rev. Chava’s Christmas reflections that takes place on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, the Sunday where the candle we light represents LOVE. For us, Christmas is Love incarnate, God entering human flesh in a new way, in the form of a baby who will grow with the love of his mother and step-father,fulfill messianic prophecies of his people, and experience all that we do. He will laugh and anticipate and fill with joy. He will make many loving relationships with men and women who share his Good News. Some will hold him up and some will let him down, badly. He will be a loving, healing, challenging Presence among us. He will be prophetic and show us the way of his God Father/Mother Who wants no less than justice ,love and peace for us and from us and gives the same. Jesus, Yeshua bar Joseph, will suffer, a lot, and die for his prophetic teachings. Jesus the Christ will be our salvation and our liberator. Death could not hold him. Because of him our life is eternal. Because of him church has happened where God’s family celebrate life and worship together,leaving none behind. The Gospel of such love and life is to be shared with all people. We thank our sister Rev. Chava for braving the snow and icy conditions once again as she brings this Gospel to two men, one of whom is ministering to the other. Thanks be to God for Christmas, thanks be to God for the messengers. You be a messenger too. This is Church and this is a beautiful Christmas celebration.

Pastor Judy Lee, ARCWP

with Pastor Judy Beaumont, ARCWP Holding the Candle of Love

Rev. Chava Redonnet’s Reflections

Sunday, December 22, 2013

4th Sunday of Advent

Dear friends,

Three years ago when we started St Romero’s in the dining room at St Joe’s, Jim Callan gave me a piece of advice. “Show up, no matter what,” he said. I managed to stick to that for quite a while, but about a year ago there came a time when I had to be away and there was no one to fill in for me. So now when I have to do that, I put signs up all over St Joe’s, put it in the bulletin, and write it on facebook, hoping no one will show up and find there’s no Mass.

This past Sunday was awfully snowy and cold, but I remembered what Jim said, and slogged my way through the snow, wondering if anyone would come to Mass at all. And it was a good thing I did, because two men showed up. One of them was a man who had been there just once before. He is an immigrant from Southeast Asia, who washes dishes at a restaurant nearby. The other is a man who is almost blind, who is often at Mass, and always asks for food. He lives just down the street. As the three of us prepared to start the service, the first man told me that he would have to leave by 11:45 because he had to go to work. My homily was about Nelson Mandela and finding reasons to rejoice (of which his life is one). When it came time for the Eucharistic Prayer, it was already past 11:30. I cut out some of the prayers so that we’d all be able to have communion together. We shared communion, and then the man from the restaurant was putting on his coat, getting ready to leave. He started fiddling with a bag that I hadn’t realized was his. The bag turned out to contain food from the restaurant that he had brought for the man who is almost blind.

“Oh, thank you! You brought me food!” he said. But as the other man was on his way out the door, the blind man added, “It’s not as much as last week!”

“He’ll hear you!” I told him.

“Well, it isn’t!”

I don’t think the man from the restaurant heard him. (Phew!)

He wanted to sing “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” and even though it’s still Advent we sang it, because that’s what he wanted. And it was joyful and beautiful, just as it was.

This week we read of Joseph, getting the news that things were not as they were supposed to be. His bride-to-be was pregnant, and he knew he wasn’t the father. He must have been a mature person with a good heart, because he decided to divorce her quietly and not put her to shame. Then an angel showed up! And told him that this messed-up version of family was exactly the way God wanted it to be. And he was to name the baby “God is with us.” Emmanuel.

I think our little church is exactly the way God wants it to be, too. We’re small, we’re grouchy sometimes, but these beautiful moments happen, these moments of grace. It’s really church… like Jesus said, wherever two or more gather in his name, there he is with us. God-is-with-us.

Please pray for one of the guys in our migrant church, who will be spending Christmas in the Detention Center. On Monday I kept getting these strange calls with a recorded woman’s voice speaking in Spanish. About the third or fourth call I figured out they were coming from the Detention Center, and a call or two later figured out what I was required to do to accept the call. It was a big relief because I knew he was there but hadn’t been able to reach him. It turned out he had court on Wednesday and needed help. I called a lawyer friend who is representing a number of folks from our church. He said he couldn’t be there but instructed me on what to tell our friend to say, that he had a lawyer but had only found him the day before, and he needed an extension. Tuesday night I was worried because I had no way to call him, was waiting for his call so I could explain what he was to do, and he hadn’t called. I asked friends to pray! And they did. And the phone rang! We went over and over what he was to do, and the next day he went in to court alone and asked for the extension, and got it. He will go to court on January 6, and the lawyer will ask for bond. Then we have to find a way to raise the bond, so stay tuned! I will visit him Saturday.

One thing you can say about St Romero’s. We may be tiny, but it’s never a dull moment!!

Love and light and peace as you celebrate Christmas. May there be lots of JOY!!

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Ministry+of+Irritation.-a0132053432
On a feast day you came
Spirit-Led, oops
yet another woman of extravagant
Love
A woman who gets things done
You did it--Spirit-Led
you crossed the line
and entered their space
splashing him, rebaptizing him
dangerously
the oil flowed alive,
moving in dynamic Spirited
rhythms
perfuming, scented, alluring
you drew us in--anointing him
Oh woman who dared to bring him
Beauty
Oh woman who dared to feed his
soul
who heard the Voice
who named the Truth
reminding him, reminding him,
naming, calling him in your
poetic display of divine madness
Mary of Bethany
an Easter Morning woman claiming
The Easter Morning Man ...
freeing woman
we remember you

I must admit that I began the day of December 21st a bit
melancholy - the eve of my daughter’s 21st birthday, I couldn’t
help but admit that my beautiful baby girl was no longer mine alone. As
birthdays sometimes do, that day was simply telling me it was time to finally
admit that, surely, as the lovely adult
she has grown into, she belongs to the world. So, I turned my energy and
efforts to the liturgy we were holding that night - the first that would bring
the priestly ministries of Mary Sue Barnett to the world, ministries
accompanied by the new ARCWP deacons, Betty Smith and I. And oh, what a liturgy
that was!

We began as we so often do with a simple statement about an
aspect of our practice, and then a contemplative invitation. That night’s
statement emphasized our awareness of the Christian call to our universal
priesthood, one, we told them, we would honor through three means. First, when the words of consecration were spoken,
community members - not the ordained present - would raise the plates and cups
in the center of our celebration. Second, all present would raise their own
hands and speak those words always reserved for the male clergy alone. Third,
all would also act as ministers, distributing the bread and wine to each other,
to everyone present. We told them we do those things for one simple reason:
through our universal priesthood we are called to become transformational
people. Together, we transform the bread and wine. Together we are called to be
transformed by the bread and wine. Together, we bring that transformational
power to the world, where it is so desperately needed. Our contemplative
meditation was a simple one ending with this simple reminder - that, in being
in our celebration that night, they were “nowhere, but now here,” their breaths intermingling into one
beautiful symbol of unity.

A most sublime and sweet soprano voice then broke the
silence with the familiar words, “Oh, come all ye faithful…” Within seconds, our community joined
in, filling our beautiful space with song. Sitting in two concentric circles,
we faced each other, all visible to the other. Two simple music stands were
placed opposite each other, within the outer rim of the circle so that all were
truly included. Within the circle’s middle stood three tables on which
our bread and wine were resting. Two candles, standing amidst pine greens,
alone, functioned as decoration. Surely, within that holy, precious space,
nothing else was needed. As the song finished, Mary Sue began the liturgy with
these words….

“In the name of the One who births all that is, and of Jesus
- love’s Incarnation, and of the Holy Spirit, our Liberator…”

communicating so powerfully that we are a people who seek
our Living God, the One who lies beyond any single specific image or name, the
One who is forever surprising us. And so, we continued. A blend of male and
female voices spoke the prayers and read throughout our liturgy that included a
reading from Sirach and another from St. Teresa of Avila’s
The Interior Castle. And, maybe, for the first time ever, everyone present
heard the Magnificat spoken as Gospel in a woman’s
voice. The opening of Mary Sue’s homily touched us all. After
reminding us of her recent experience in CPE at a nearby trauma hospital she
said this…..

“I have been present to individuals and
families who cry out loud for a miracle.

The cries are filled with passion and seem to reverberate into the
vastness of the night skies.

To be human and to cry out in grief is to know what it is like to be
little. It is a contingency experience. "I am suffering. I am afraid. I
want a miracle!”

She went on to remind us that on this Christmas Eve, “Wisdom will be waiting.

You are Her beloved,” Mary Sue reminded us, “and She desires to be in
dialogue with you.

And in this darkest day of the year, let us imagine what it would be
like to join one another on Wisdom's path to traverse the diverse rooms and the
lands for those who suffer:

----in hospital rooms

----in inner city violence

----in shelters

-----on the streets

-----in psychiatric wards

-----in halfway houses

----in brothels

----in isolation

-----in the bleakness of depression.”

Her closing words told us why it is so imperative that we listen:

“This is Wisdom Incarnate. This is the Christ
breaking into the mystery of today's winter solstice, who is taking up
residence in a beloved city, who grows tall like a cedar, who fills out with
glorious blossoms the weeping cherry tree and who gives forth to all her sacred
fragrance. Let us participate fully in the human cries for miracles and let us
compose our own songs of liberation and healing where the sounds of Wisdom
reverberate from Zion forever!” Silence then filled us all as those words of such deep insight and
compassion resonated through us.

And then, after communion, that sweet soprano sang, this
time alone, the first verse of the
beloved hymn, Silent Night. When she paused, Betty’s
voice became audible, speaking words that Mary might have said that first night
after all others had fallen asleep. “Joseph,” she began, “Joseph,
are you awake?” As her gentle voice continued, I
couldn’t help but become aware of our own place within that
sanctuary. Now past sunset, I could see through the windows, streetlights just
then blinking on. Faint sounds of traffic in the distance reminded me that the
world was still moving, but in that space, there within that circle, well, I
was experiencing so much of what Betty was revealing of Mary’s
experience.

While Mary was asking Jesus how she was to give Him, God’s
miracle to her, what He needed, I was wondering what I could give to those with
me as I accept this ministry, one I consider God’s
miracle to me. Oh, I know my intentions are good, but I strongly suspect that,
as an “ordained minister,” it is not I who will always be the one to give and guide.
More than likely, it will be these people with whom I share a universal call to
priesthood who will be giving and teaching me so much. Like Mary, I am humbled
to be in such a place. Like Mary, I know, I have only love, really, to give.

As Betty’s voice faded, and our soprano -
Betty’s granddaughter Sabrina actually - began again, we all
realized that it was time for our liturgy to end. Mary Sue offered our
communion closing prayer, and then our concluding rite began, culminating with
a mutual blessing. With energy and enthusiasm, we sang our closing song, “Joy
to the World.” And,
then, of course, it was time to depart. Oh, how warmly people received our
work. More than one told me how much they appreciated the sense of inclusion,
the ability to truly participate throughout the liturgy, the fact that even a
young boy could give his own mother the bread. A long-time community member
hugged me warmly, telling me that our albs were “icing
on her Christmas cake,” inspiring her because, in her eyes, those simple garments
were symbols of the fiats the three of us had made. In claiming our ordination,
she explained, we were saying yes to God in spite of opposition, in spite of
what others might say. And so, in seeing those symbols, she is inspired to
speak her own personal yes to God as well regardless of whatever opposition or
dismay she may need to face as she claims her own role within our kin-dom.

As I sat in my car that night, alone, ready to drive home,
I thought again of my daughter’s birth so many years ago. On
December 21, 1992, I had spent that night anticipating her new life, hoping
that all would go well with her delivery and then, of course, through all the
years that followed. Well, here I was, 21 long years later, aware that another
birth had just occurred, so sweetly timed with hers. Oh my…..
what a mystery in which we live. I can only say….

“My soul proclaims your greatness, O God,

and my spirit rejoices
in you, my Savior.

For you have looked
with favor upon your lowly servant….”

AS if a "Birth Was Happening" by Deacon Betty Smith, ARCWPOur whole process of getting ready was as if a "Birth" was happening. Mary
Sue, Denise and I met several times for long sessions of planning, exchanging,
and preparing during a "gestation" time. We were "fertile" with ideas and
blessings during the preparations. Our white albs would be worn in the
"birthing place" as a symbol of our commitment to our ministry, (as drs. and
nurses do in hospitals). We felt "stirrings" of happiness and, yes,
gleefulness, as we thought out each word and place-to-be in our church. As Mary
Sue retreated to a place of quiet, Denise and I set up the room, moving heavy
chairs in two circles so all could "be in the event", pulling and placing tables
for the nativity event, "laboring" as we prepared to "deliver" our Liturgy.
As friends and families began to arrive, they were greeted by all three of us.
Rosie was busy with so many behind-the-scene actions: bringing in greens for the
tables,, getting the vessels ready for communion, laying out information about
our future liturgies. I had spent time with my granddaughter, Sabrina
Wellendorff, going over the music and timing of the "onset" of our piece
together. As Denise invited all of us to "breathe" and "be", our parenting
began. Mary Sue, Denise and I were too humbled by what took place during the
readings of the Words, Communion, sweet music, and birthing celebration to do
any more than look at each other in solidarity and sisterhood and smile.Birthing with Mother Sophia was as powerful for me as when I gave birth to my
four children. God knows how powerful that is. Merry and happy holy days, Betty